Birth of my son, Riley

So in my first blog I stated that I had a son when I was 17 years old. Please do not judge me. I learned very fast to put my son Riley first. I see some young mothers who its has to be all about them. It was August 21 2004 the day Riley was born I had to start to think about what it is going to have to take to raise this perfect baby. See Riley was born sick for no apparent reason. He had a hole in the heart, no muscle tone, he would not eat at all(he took his first feeding through a feeding tube) and as the Doctor was trying to discharge us I was fighting with her trying to tell her to check him out. I knew right away that there was something off with him. Still everyone looked at me as a 17 year old seeking attention. It was not until i set off the baby alert bracelet and ran into NI CU that another Doctor told me to go to my room and wait for him to come back.(I still to this day have never seen a doctor run so fast) I don`t even think I had enough time to lay Riley down in the bassinet before the Doctor came and took him into another small room. he started to pick him with needles. Putting in an IV line, setting him on a heart machine and doing a full assessment. It was so scary, I was standing behind a glass window not allowed to go into the room. It felt like it was forever before someone came out and told me what was going on. When they did come out they explained to me that Riley would have to stay in the hospital for a while. The rest of that night is a blur to me. What I do remember is a lot of crying, guilt and not knowing what to do. i made Riley a promise that night. I promised that I would put all of his needs in front of my own. The hospital Riley was in had apartments and they let me stay there so i could learn about the machines that Riley would be sent home with. When Riley was one week old I was able to go stay there. The very first night Riley pulled his feeding tube out. That morning while we waited for the doctor to come back in to put the feeding tube back in, Riley took a bottle. That was the first time that I looked at him and knew that from that day forward we would be a team. It was so amazing. It restored all faith in him getting better. He had a few episodes of sleep apnea, and one of the hospital rules is that he had to go a full week with no episodes, if so the week would start over. When Riley was three weeks and two days old I was able to bring Riley home.